Foot press guard



Sept. 15', 1942. swANsQN 2,296,068

FOOT PRESS GUARD Filed Oct. 15, 1941 f mman@ 9 INVENTOR fa-,4x1 wa/fso/z ATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 15, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE John Swanson, Attleboro, Mass., assigner to J. & L. Tool Company, Attleboro, Mass., a partnership composed of Emil L. Johnson and Olaf Lunds'ten Application october 15, 194.1, serial No.. 415,110

3 Claims.

This invention relates to a "foot press, more particularly 'to a` guard to prevent the hand of the operator being injured by the reciprocating plunger tool of the foot press.

Guards have been heretofore employed in connection with foot presses, but in various constructions of such guards diiilculties are encountered in positioning the work for operation by the tool carried by the plunger of the press or some sort of a` spring has been necessary for movement of the guard in one direction, which through constant action becomes crystallized and broken.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide a guard which will be positive in its action and which will be moved inboth directions positively Without the use of a spring or any resilient means. y

Another object of the invention is to provide a guard which `will swing out of the way suinciently 'so that no encumbrance is present to interfere With the positioning of the work in the machine.

Another object is to provide a guard which is simple in construction and inexpensive to manufacture.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction, as will be more fully described, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a portion of the foot press with the table in section and showing my guard as in position thereon.

Fig. 2 is a fragmental side elevation of the structure shown in Fig. 1 also partly in section.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3--3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a fragmental detail partly broken awayto illustrate one position of the pivoted member which is controlled by the actuating plunger.

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4 illustrating a diierent position of the moving parts.

Fig. 6 is a section on line 6-6 of Fig. 3.

In proceeding With this invention I mount an actuating element on the plunger and utilize the movement of this element for controlling all movement of the guard. The guard which is so controlled consists of a pivoted member having a cam surface to contact this actuating element, so that movement of the actuating element will, through its engagement with the cam surface, cau-se the member to swing about its pivot and an arm carried by the pivoted member will sweep across the path of movement of the reciprocating plunger or tool carried thereby so as to positively evict an operators hand should it be in the m'p'ath of the plunger as the plunger is operated.

With reference to the drawing, I0 designates the table portion of a foot press With an anvil I I mounted thereon for the reception of a tool holder I2 and tool I3 upon which a piece of work I4 may be positioned.

The superstructure frame extends upwardly from the table IIJ and has an overhanging portion I5 provided With a dovetail guide groove I1 in which a gib I8 is located which gib may be adjusted by the set screws I9. A plunger 2i! is reciprocatingly mounted in the guide groove I1. This plunger is reciprocated a distance governed by the abutment nuts 2I and 22 held by check nuts 23 and 24 on the threaded rod 25. This threaded rod extends through the upper portion 26 of the frame asillustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. A tool 2l is held in the tool holder 28 which in turn is held by the set screw 29 for operation on the Work I4 as reciprocating movement is imparted to the plunger 2i). This reciprocating movement is caused by means of a long lever swung by the foot of the operator for actuation of the plunger.

The description up to this point is all of well known structure of a foot press.

This invention consists in the guard which is to be utilized in connection with the foot press and consists of an L-shaped bracket '3B (see Fig. 3) attached in any suitable manner such as by bolts3l to the face of the plunger 2B. One arm 32 of this bracket 30 extends laterally or toward one side of the plunger while the other arm 33 of this L-shaped bracket extends at right angles to arm 32 and rearwardly from the face of the plunger 20. This arm 33 is slotted as `at 34 (see Figs; 2 and 3) and a stub shaft 35 having a shoulder 36 (see Fig. 6) extends through the slot 34 and is bound in adjusted position in this slot by means of nut 31 on the threaded portion Sii of this stub shaft. A Washer 3S may be positioned beneath the nut` 31, This stub shaft extends inwardly generally parallel to the arm 32 and is reduced to provide a shoulder 40 and an axle portion 4I upon Which a roller 42 is revolvably mounted, the roller being heldin position .by enlarging the end of the shaft 4I as at 43 to provide a head thereon. This roller moves up and down with the plunger in a straight line movement.

Upon the side of the frame I6 I pivotally mount a swinging member 45 which for the sake of convenience may be mounted by removing one of the set screws I9 for adjusting the gib and replacing this bolt with a similar bolt but provided with an outward extension 46 having a nut 41 thereon. The member 45 is pivoted on the portion 46 and held in position between the nut 41 and the nut 48 for free swinging movement. The member 45 is slotted as at 49 and. an arm having an offset 5l (see Fig. 1) and mounting portion 52 is positioned through this slot and xedly held to the arm by means of the nut 53. A suitable enlargement 54 provides a shoulder to engage the member 45 on either side of slot 49 while a Washer 55 may be positioned beneath nut 53. This arm 50 may be adjusted in the slot 49 so as to accommodate work pieces I4 of different thicknesses and be positioned at a height just above these work pieces when member 45 is swung about its pivot 46 to cause the arm to sweep just above the top of the work. Should a persons hand be located over or on the work in a position where the plunger would strike it the hand would be forcibly ejected from this position by the swinging of the member 45 and its arm 50 carried thereby.

The member 45 is provided with a cam surface 56 recessed deeply as at 51 for the reception of the roller 42. When this roller is at its uppermost point of travel such for instance as illustrated in Fig. 4 the roller by contacting the bulging surface 58 above the notch 41 will swing the member 45 about its pivot so that the arm will be retracted or near the rear of its swinging path of travel such as shown in Figs. 2 and 4. As the plunger descends the roller 42 also descends in its straight line movement and the roller will move into the notch 51 and will engage the bulging portion 59 of the member 45 below the notch so as to swing the arm forwardly along the arc 60 (see Fig. 2) and into substantially the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2 or full lines in Fig. 5. The timing will be such that the arm 50 passes across the path of the plunger 21 prior to its coming into contact with the work so that if the operators hand were in the path of travel of the plunger the arm would sweep the hand from such position and prevent injury of the fingers or part of the hand by reason of compression beneath the plunger tool 21 and the work. After contact has been made a with the work and the plunger is again raised the roller will by its movement along the cam surface 56 cause the member to swing in the opposite direction from that just previously discussed from its forward position to its rear position.

The shape of the cam surface 56 may be such that the desired movement both from the standpoint of speed of swing and proper timing with reference to the plunger may be had. The shaping may also be such as to permit further movement of the plunger after the forward swing of the arm without further lifting of the arm beyond a certain desired height and it will be noted that bulge 59 is cut away as illustrated in Fig. 5 so as to permit further movement of the roller without moving the arm angularly about its pivot. In some cases, as here illustrated, a slight dropping of the arm may be found to be desirable after a full swinging movement oi the arm across the work has occurred.v

I claim:

1. In a machine having a plunger and a xed overhanging frame in which said plunger moves, an L-shape bracket having an arm secured to the front face of said plunger and movable therewith and extending beyond the side of said frame and with the other arm thereof extending rearwardly of said front face and spaced from the side of said frame, a member having a slot therein and pivotally mounted to the side of said frame at a location thereon between said arm and said frame and intermediate the free end of said arm and the front face of said plunger and having an extension thereon adjustably secured in said slot and movable with said member to swing across the path of movement of the plunger, a roller adjustably secured to the free end portion of said arm, a cam surface on the extreme edge of said member engaging said roller at all times throughout the extent of movement of said roller to govern the movement of said member to swing the same in one direction upon the downward movement of said plunger and to swing the member in the other direction upon the upward movement of said plunger.

2. In a machine having a reciprocating plunger and a Xed overhanging frame, a roller movable with said plunger, a swingable member pivotally mounted on said frame, a generally crank-shape member providing two arms spaced from each other with one of said arms adjustably secured to said swingable member and with the other cf said arms positioned to swing across the path of movement of said plunger, said crank-shape member being rotatable about the axis of the arm thereof secured to said swingable member to adjustably position the other arm thereof at a desired location within the path of swinging movement of the plunger, a cam-shape surfacey on said member engaging said roller to govern the movement of said member and arm carried thereby.

3. A safety device for a machine having a reciprocating plunger thereon, comprising an arm having an offset portion pivotally mounted on a support having a cam surface thereon and pivotally mounted on said machine at a location to position said support wholly rearwardly of the front surface of said plunger when the same is in a raised position and to position said arm at a location to be swung across the path of movement of said plunger upon movement of said support, means for adjusting said arm about its pivotal mounting to position the same at a desired location in the path of swinging movement thereof, and means carried by said plunger and movable therewith and in engagement at all times with said cam surface to move said support upon movement of said plunger.

JOHN SWANSON. 

